Saturday, January 31, 2015

Given those comments I thought it was appropriate to make a couple of other points...

• I never said Chris Kyle was a saint. I said he was a hero. They are not the same things.

• I could care less whether Kyle decked Ventura, although in a perfect universe that would certainly be the case. Chris is dead, and his side of that story died with him.

• I do not personally know Jesse Ventura and am in no position to assess his service, but IMHO by pursuing a lawsuit against a grieving widow he showed himself to be a man with neither grace nor honor. I suggest he be left, alone, to whatever shards of life he has left.

• I've never met a saint and I hope I never do. It can be scary and dangerous standing too near a saint. While heroes may kill people, saints have a knack for destroying nations, cultures and souls.

• To me, one of the peculiar pathologies of modern America is an almost obsessive need to destroy our heroes. Again, to me, and I speak only for myself and maybe Newt, it simply does not matter whether, say, Jim Bowie was a drunken womanizing blowhard dying of syphillis or that Davy Crockett was a massive fraud running from his many failures…the only thing that matters is that when William Travis drew that line in the sand, Bowie and Crockett were on the right side of that line. At some point we have to accept that we are all human — fallen, if you will — and subject to flaws, failures, misgivings, arrogance, cowardice, and indeed greatness that is inherent in the human condition.

• A few weeks back I mentioned a quote Stephen King's THE STAND…I have another one that's germane here: “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just … come out the other side. Or you don’t.”

• I don't much believe in deconstruction. Were I to sit down one Saturday afternoon with a bottle of Maker's Mark to sift through the wreckage I've left behind me, I'm not totally sure I could chart my way out of that blue and lonely section of hell. I've always thought Kris Kristofferson captured the truth of it in his little known song The Pilgrim Chapter 33…"running from his devils, Lord, reaching for the stars…losing all the love along the way…"

Okay…that's about deep enough for a Saturday morning…if the temperatures goes up 5 degrees, I'm going to the range, head cold or not!

Friday, January 30, 2015

I was privileged…let me repeat and expand on that…privileged and honored to know and have spent time with Chris Kyle. He was an American in the fullest sense of the word, a man of honor who accepted and shouldered a hard — indeed, nightmarish — job without complaint and performed it to the best of his not insubstantial abilities. An aside, with apologies to my friend Steve Hunter…when I sat down with Chris the first time, I thought, Good Lord, I'm talking to Bob Lee Swagger!

Like Chris, I grew up in the South surrounded by hard men, men who saw the elephant in World War 2 and Korea, men on both sides of the law, men who regardless of their views were irrevocably joined by an iron-bound sense of honor. And America was better for it.

War is hell. It is a gruesome affair. And there are bad guys and there are good guys. Normally, Americans roots for Americans, but the ninnies of America, who tend to also love soccer, root for teams other than America because we are number one. They feel comfortable rooting for the USA team in soccer, because we are not. It makes them feel good.

It makes them feel good in a way they pride themselves on gender neutral toys. With enough time on their hands, the ninnies — who, I should add, are upset at the cis-gendered heteronormative misogyny of me even using the word ninny — can rally with religious zeal to causes and create their own gods while eschewing the real God. They worship an effeminate Jesus who double majored in Queer Theory and Gender Studies and is the patron saint of professional victims and who wears a kick ass European futbol jersey.

These ninnies, given their pedigree, also hate stories that show real good and real bad. Unless those movies show the GOP, Christians, or the NRA as the enemy, the ninnies prefer a GLAAD approved movie where good and bad are ambiguous unless there is a transvestite, in which case that character is morally good in every circumstance and probably has been abused by the Pope.

In the world of the ninnies, “American Sniper” cannot be praised. Chris Kyle is a monster because he ruthlessly fought for his country. Were Kyle a Russian against the Nazis or a Chinese Communist against Chiang Kai-shek doing the exact same thing, the ninnies would demand “American Sniper” get an Oscar. But Chris Kyle is Southern, white, Christian, and a bad ass. He is therefore all that the ninnies are not, has probably never even heard of cis-gender nonsense, and is not ashamed to fly the American flag.

Read the whole thing.

When progressives say they love the troops but hate the war, they are lying. They hold their hatred of the military, of men like Chris Kyle, and, indeed, of America closely under their cloaks, waiting for the moment they can unveil their true feelings like a blood-red banner across the field of battle. We have an administration who released dedicated terrorists to save a traitor, claiming no American would be left behind, but who left American heroes to die in Benghazi and then lied to their survivors.

AMERICAN SNIPER is a success because, amazingly, the liberal fascists have not made as many inroads in the heartland of America as they hoped. Let us pray that remains the case!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sigh...burning in the chest...head stopped up...DAMN IT! I thought I was home free!!!

I'm gonna see if I can nap this off before ti gets really roaring...still (and don't tell my Sweetie, who had an appointment today), there was .22 ammo loaded up and I really really wanted to dial in that RifleCraft sling, so I did sneak outside for a few magazines. Shooting at 2-inch plates at 25 yards, I'm running them pretty steady now. The loop sling is a great tool (why I used one in Africa). I'm thinking about shooting 1 more Appleseed with .22, just because I like this Clark gun so much.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Am frantically trying to catch up on my sleep, which seems sort of counterproductive. The frantic-iker I am, the less I sleep! Plus, we've got people working on the Bunker, a bunch of small jobs that we thought would be postponed until spring. With the amazing weather, we decided to go for it. That's why you heard hammering on this week's podcast!

I placed my order today for the MPA 6.5 Creedmoor bolt gun…I am very excited. Of course you'll see it on SHOOTING GALLERY next season (assuming I'm renewed, of course). I've also got another rifle project under way that I'll tell you about a little later. Plus, Clint Beyer of Beyer Barrels gave me a really slick 10-22 barrel at SHOT. So while I was unpacking my Sweetie saw the barrel and asked me what I was going to do with it. I said, well of course, I'm going to build another 10-22! To which she replied, "Seriously?"

Well, yeah! I ask you, what would you do if you had a world class barrel laying around? Really, it's the only thing I can think of to do. Hmmmmmmmmmmm…a Tac-Sol X-Ring or Volquartsen stainless steel receiver? Or think out of box and get an NDS receiver in OD green? Or maybe I should just breathe into a paper bag until the feeling passes…

Want to read a REALLY stupid piece by a really smart guy? Visit TTAG for their latest incendiary screed from Dan Baum, who is a world class writer (GUN GUYS, the book, and his brilliant piece on concealed carry in Harper's), a gun guy and a homie from Boulder. Honestly, the piece on TTAG is a pile of crap, the usual recycled "If we're nice and lick the boots of our Betters, why, in no time at all they'll give us a biscuit!"

It wasn’t the riots that brought about the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts; it was African Americans demonstrating, under terrible duress, that they were decent, God-fearing, patriotic Americans to whom a great injustice had been done. It wasn’t Act Up that moved the needle on gay marriage; it was gays and lesbians showing the rest of us that their way of loving is as rich and worthy as anybody’s. Blacks and gays began enjoying their “natural, civil, and Constitutionally protected” rights, in other words, when they demonstrated to the majority, by moral example, that they deserved them.

Good Lord, Dan! Have you lost your mind? "Deserved them?" And BTW, I happened to be growing up in the South in the 1950s and 1960s, and heroes like Martin Luther King didn't "prove" he was just a good ole boy like his oppressor. He stood up and said he was willing to die, but he wasn't going to step to the back of the bus, so to speak. I was also in New York City in the mid-1970s, at the rise of "gay power." What happened there was that men and women stood up and said they were willing to die, but they weren't going back in the closet.

And BTW BTW, if someone steals my property, regardless of whether it is a hammer, a car or an AR-15, I AM NOT COMPLICIT IN ANY CRIME COMMITTED WITH THOSE STOLEN TOOLS! That is the law of the land. The criminal who stole the tool is the SOLE person with any responsibility for his or her crimes. To suggest otherwise is 1) wrong, 2) stupid, and 3) gives succor to our blood enemies. I say that as someone who has invested the money in safes, alarm systems, video surveillance and who has recommended that all gun owners take steps to secure their guns.

The idea that the government grants us those rights we "deserve" might play well at the faculty cocktail parties in Boulder, but I suggest you go north, to Loveland, to Ft. Collins or (shudder) Cheyenne, and you will learn that there are some rights that are natural, rights that are universal and inalienable, not granted at the whim of the University of Colorado faculty senate or some clown show in Washington D.C. Sooner or later, brother, you gotta choose sides...

Just my opinion.

Anyway, the rest of you guys read the whole thing and make your own decisions.

If you need a palate-clensing sorbet after that, I suggest a visit to the Art of Manliness blog (heaven knows I could use the trip!) and their article on Winston Churchill. They begin with a great quote from William Manchester's biography of the great man, The Last Lion:

“If ever there was a Renaissance man, he was it. In the age of the specialist, he was the antithesis, our Leonardo. As a writer he was a reporter, novelist, essayist, critic, historian, and biographer. As a statesman he served, before becoming His Majesty’s first magistrate, as minister for the colonies and for trade, home affairs, finance, and all three of the armed forces. Away from his desk he was at various times an airplane pilot, artist, farmer, fencer, hunter, breeder of racehorses, polo player, collector of tropical fish, and shooter of wild animals in Africa. One felt he could do anything.”

Monday, January 26, 2015

This piece at the Neo-Neocon Blog is short, brilliant and powerful. It is a simple message. It is about being wrong:

I remember one of those original blogs had a joke that amused me mightily at the time. It went something like this: Hey, I think I know what’s wrong. We thought it was 9/11/2001, but actually we got the year backwards; it was really 1002.

The idea was that progress was an illusion, and that somehow through some terrible time warp or wormhole we’d been catapulted to the Middle Ages, or what used to be called the Dark Ages.

That was a joke, but not really a joke either. I’ve had occasion to think of it many times since. It seems to be a common thought among people who live in times of jarring transition.

Please read the whole thing, then think about it. A lot.

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Our President didn't bother to attend because after all, they were only Jews. I went to Auschwitz not because I wanted to, but because I felt like I had to. I needed to touch the boxcars with my own hands; stand in the gas chamber as if I could read the scratches on the walls; if I could stand beneath those guard towers and explain why the rights we have as Americans are important; if I could change one mind, it would be worth it. The camps will haunt my nightmares until I die.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

I ran into Jason Wilson as I was being towed hither and yon across the SHOT SHOW, and I was passing he told me about the P7 and how I'd have to see it…of course, I didn't make it, since I didn't make it anywhere that wasn't on The List.

• Featuring the NEW P7 Reticle.
• Auto Brightness Sensor - So the operator does not have to take a hand off the weapon to manipulate the reticle brightness when going from a bright environment to a darker one.
• Reversible Mounting Pins - We made the mounting pins reversible so the Bull Pup weapons can utilize the HD7 with out cracking the knuckles of the operator when the bolt carrier needs charged (thanks, Jason!).
• AA Battery — An economical and readily available power source for offering over 2500 hours on a single AA battery.
• Mounting — A robust Picatinny rail mount is built in for secure and rock solid mounting to most weapons platforms.
• 100% Waterproof, Shockproof & Fogproof — Because you never know what environmental conditions you will be in when you need to rely on your weapon system.
• Available“Killflash” filter.

I have found my HD7 to be a tank. It's mounted on my Tavor and likely to stay there. I'll get one of the P7s as soon as I can and let you all know how it works. BTW, $439 MSRP.

Thanks, guys…and this year —THIS YEAR! — I'll get to your long-distance training event in Wyoming!

Here's a shocker…my feet don't hurt! I would happily do commercials for Lowa Boots — I alternated between my two pair of Lowas, a GTX and a pair of the Desert Boots favored by U.S. Special Forces and the boot I used in Africa. So there's an unsolicited plug for a non-sponsor!

I would have loved to sit down with the execs at Lowa and waxed poetic, but this year at SHOT I achieved my own unfortunate "personal best"…except for transit to or between appointments, I did not set one foot on the Show floor. And I still did not management to speak to all the people I needed to sit down with. Or, more grammatically, with whom I wished to sit. Like Lowa, or Crimson Trace, or DoubleStar, etc. Sigh.

I do have some bullet points from SHOT 2015. Let's start with what I was right about…

• Pistol caliber carbines were everywhere. Marshal and I pretty much hit this nail on the head. Both the massive flood of AR-based carbines and various subsets of submachine guns were everywhere, and the buyer I'm gonna venture a few guesses on "why" — availability of low-cost East Bloc 9mm ammunition vs. 5.56 prices…the minimized blast of 9mm and the other pistol cartridges from 16-inch barrels as opposed to 5.56…and most importantly, the sheer "cool factor" of these guns. I would expect a lot of 3-Gunners to pick up one of the relatively inexpensive Stag 9T as a great practice rifle.

• Pistol variants were perhaps a spec less visible than Marshal and I anticipated, probably because of fallout from the ATF's nonsensical "Open Letter" released in the Friday before SHOT. There were still a huge number of them, many, if not most, fitted with stabilizing braces, but they were less front and center than they would have been if that giant turd hadn't dropped on Friday.

I had a chance at Media Day to sit down for a few minutes with my good friend Mike McNett at DoubleTap Ammunition. I outlined my idea for a 9mm round optimized for 16-inch barrels. We disused several options, including his 77-gr pill going very fast and a heavy 147-gr bullet. McNett is going to start work on both a target and a self-defense version right away. I'm also going to have the same conversation with Peter Pi and Mike Shovel at Corbon as soon as I can. I want to get carbine-optimized pistol ammo on the shelves as soon as possible so the little guns can live up to their potential.

• The "commoditization" of the AR platform is now complete…that is, new AR accessories, mods, versions, etc. are no longer about function, but rather the exclusive province of fashion. My mentor in manufacturing Dave Garwood once said to me that all industries, if they succeed, eventually evolve to fashion…I, of course, thought he was nuts. Upon reflection, it turned out that he was exactly right. I could go into a long dissertation about product development "S Curves,"how innovation in form and function takes place on the steep upward gradient of the curve while, at the almost horizontal line at the top of the curve charges tend toward fashion changes…but you'd probably fall asleep. Instead, think about AR triggers — when we first mod'ed them on SHOOTING GALLERY's first season 13 years ago, we did it exactly the same way we did 1911s…with stones on the original military triggers (which sucked). That evolved into jogs to make the stoning easier...drop in triggers...specialty, highly evolved drop-in triggers…colored, even more specialty triggers…etc. Maybe the ultimate vision of the fashion AR are the Unique AR hand guards.

BTW, during my frantic 10-minutes-until-closing-time Friday afternoon sprint to the finish, I made myself late by stopping by the Geissele Automatics booth to tell them that I pay MSRP for Geissele triggers because I believe they are the best out there. They asked me whether they could publicize I'd said that, and I of course said yes. I also ordered an ALG red dot mount, another Geissele-derived product, for my Glock 34…yes, I have finally decided to go "Open!" I also ordered an Aimpoint T2 on the fly for that mount. And yes, I agreed to pay MSRP! LOL!

FINALLY, THE SINGLE BIGGEST TREND OF SHOT 2015…

• QUIET!

SHOT 2015 WAS ALL ABOUT THE MAINSTREAMING OF SUPPRESSORS…

Silencers hit the tipping point Big Time. My little cherubs and seraphim tell me that even the Boy Scouts of Maine are considering a pilot program of using suppressor on their firearm training program. There are now three massive "Poles of Power" in the suppressor industry…the Old Guard, including Gemtech, SureFire and several others…the new powerhouse of SilencerCo (best booth at SHOT 2015, BTW), whose Salvo shotgun suppressor and focus on suppressors for hunting is helping reshape the industry…and the emerging world-shaker of Sig Sauer Suppressors, introduced to the world at SHOT 2015 and powered by the intellectual team of my old friends Kevin Brittingham, Ethan Lessard and John Hollister, all formerly of AAC (Ethan worked at Sig before we went to AAC…and the world goes round and round). I'll be headed up to Sig in New Hampshire in April to go through the product line, including suppressors.

The key point is that all the silencer guys, new and old, are united in the push to move these fundamental safety devices off the $200 tax stamp to ether the AOW $5 stamp or off the NFA list completely — which is the logical, most intelligent outcome. I am more convinced than ever that the ATF's "Open Letter" will price to be a major misstep for that agency, shining the light on the inadequacies — and the often ridiculous — provisions of the NFA. It is not impossible that silencers will be one of the beneficiaries of shiny some light on the outmoded piece of panic legislation.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Saturday, January 17, 2015

My friend Kevin Creighton says in an email that this is a high-risk move for ATF…this will eventually go to court (hopefully sooner than later), and its going to be hard to explain to a judge and jury how an individual can "redesign" a firearm by raising it roughly 12 inches and letting it touch a body part. This is a little bit like a dog and baby analogy…you can dress a dog in swaddling clothes and put him in a crib, but hey, he's still a pooch. And if ATF fails to make the argument stick, SBRs and SBSs are pretty much out the door.

A bigger up front question is if the ATF "Open Letter" stands, it grants the agency sweeping powers to "ban by redefinition." For example, AR pistols with buffer tubes have certainly be legally defined as "handguns' for decades. A pistol with a buffer tube — a necessary part of the firearm — can be shouldered, exactly the same as a pistol fitted with a stabilizing brace. The same "logic," and I use the word in its loosest possible connotation, can be applied to the buffer tube itself, which was neither "designed nor approved" for use as a shoulder stock. The classic Mare's Leg lever action rifle can be shouldered, albeit awkwardly (which is the case with most of these options).

The point is that the whole concept of short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns no longer make sense — if they ever did. I think we as an industry, and as a culture, need to call on the lawmakers who support us to address yet another lame situation where legal gun owners can get caught up on a technicality and face federal felony charges.

"...the missive sent to FFL holders from Max Kingery at ATF Tech Branch was an opinion, and you know what they say about opinions and assholes. If the ATF were confident that what they were peddling would hold up in a court of law, they would have issued a ruling, rather than opinion. Then they would have published it on their website for all to see. As yet, they haven’t."

This from Prince Law Offices, which has been on top of the stabilizing brace issue from the beginning:

"ATF claims that it applies common meaning when using the term “redesign”. I don’t know of a single person who would think that “redesign” entails the misuse of an object. If anything, I would venture to say it would require the individual to modify an existing object. If I were to use a screw driver to pry open an object did I just redesign it? Is using a pencil to drum on the table redesigning it into a drum stick?"

Friday, January 16, 2015

This is an Open Letter on the Redesign of "Stabilizing Braces" from Max Kingery, Acting Chief, Firearms Technology Criminal Branch, BATFE. Rich Grassi of The Tactical Wire received this Open Letter this afternoon. Forgive me if it's been published earlier. Here's the "nut graf," as it were:

The pistol stabilizing brace was neither “designed” nor approved to be used as a shoulder stock, and therefore use as a shoulder stock constitutes a “redesign” of the device because a possessor has changed the very function of the item. Any individual letters stating otherwise are contrary to the plain language of the NFA, misapply Federal law, and are hereby revoked.

Any person who intends to use a handgun stabilizing brace as a shoulder stock on a pistol (having a rifled barrel under 16 inches in length or a smooth bore firearm with a barrel under 18 inches in length) must first file an ATF Form 1 and pay the applicable tax because the resulting firearm will be subject to all provisions of the NFA.

What does this mean? On first reading, it seems the ATF has completely walked back the approval of the Sig brace and other subsequent versions. Hopefully, Adam Kraut at PrinceLaw.com will weigh in pretty quickly...they've been on top of the whole ATF waffling issue from the beginning.

…today was a perfect day to be on the range. So I sat in my office staring out at my range, staring out my shooting bench, staring at the sunshine, and working like a CRAZY MAN to be ready for SHOT next week!

Of course, I'm not. Marshal asked me for a list of "must visit" companies for both Monday Media Day and the overall Show. The Media Day list would take, like, 2 days to get through. Forget the main list. Still, there are a couple of things that stand out:

• As I said more than a month ago on the podcast, this is the Year of the Pistol Caliber Carbine. Nine-mil carbines have blossomed like cactus in the spring here at the Secret Hidden Bunker II.

• It's also a Pistol Caliber Pistol year, that is, both the AR variants (check out Angstadt Arms) and a flood of carbine/submachinegun pistol variants like the announced Uzi PRO and the CZ Scorpion EVO.

• This will be the Year of the Prepper, survival gone big-time mainstream.

• It's a New Product Year — there has been pent-up new products while companies filled the flood of Obama-orders…the results will be visible at SHOT.

I'm hoping for some eclectic-tissity, please GOD no more "innovative AR rail systems that break the mold!!!"

I actually think this might qualify:

I got an email on this baby this morning. It's a Korth Sky Marshal 9mm revolver. The German Korths have always been considered the Rolls Royces of the revolver work, with their MSRPs hovering around the cost of a couple of a couple of Wilson Combat ARs or a relatively crummy, but serviceable, Kia Sportage. I've handled Korth .357 revolvers — and they are indeed the evolved version of the Colt Python — but I can'r recall ever firing one. No sane person would trust me not to break it, probably.

Anyway, the Sky Marshal is a 6-shot 9mm that loads without moon clips. It features a rail on the right side for mounting a light and it looks…Germanic, or perhaps like the odd love child of a Chiappa Rhino 2-inch and an S&W Night Guard .327. I wish it was in .44 Special, in which case I'd get a bank loan and have one in a minute!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

I note that our blood enemies have launched their own "media education program," bankrolled by the nasty little fascist in New York:

To help journalists and news organizations in the Southwest improve their reporting on guns and gun violence, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia Journalism School is organizing a two-day regional workshop April 17 and 18, 2015 for reporters, editors, news directors, photographers, producers, and bloggers. The workshop, funded by Everytown for Gun Safety, will offer independent expert briefings and specialized reporting skills training to enhance the practical ability of journalists to report on guns and gun violence knowledgeably, ethically and effectively. The workshop will cover such topics as state and federal gun laws; patterns of gun sales and gun trafficking; national trends and polling; education and prevention initiatives; social, economic and public health impacts; and special populations (e.g. children and youth, women and returning veterans.)

Speakers include national public health and policy experts; researchers and clinicians; award-winning journalists, and prevention advocates and survivors.

I note that Dart is offering $350 "travel and expense" stipends to 15 select journalists. Guess where that $350 comes from?

I've seen a lot of buzz on the Internet that basically asks why the firearms industry isn't running exactly the same program.

Well, we did.

Years ago, working with NSSF President Doug Painter, Doug and I created the Media Education Program. The Program was tweaked by Bill Brassard, who is still with NSSF, and Paul Erhardt, now with his own media company that works with IDPA, Apex Tactical and others. In the 6-year span of the NSSF Media Education Program our focus was to put guns in the hands of the journalists and teach them to shoot.

I was privileged to oversee a cadre of instructors that has never been equalled, including Jerry Miculek, Kay Clark, Randi Rogers, "Evil Roy," Bruce Gray, Todd Jarrett, Chris Edwards from GSSF, Walt Rauch from IDPA, Dave Thomas from USPSA, Lisa Munson, Dave Arnold, Dave Lauck, Olympic athletes, top law enforcement trainers like Bill Murphy, top military trainers, etc.

In working with my instructors beforehand, I emphasized that they were to answer any and every question as honestly and thoroughly as possible, because we all fundamentally believed in the correctness and, for lack of a better word, the honor of our cause. Whenever possible, we wanted to show, not tell. In my other conversations with media experts on our side, I steadfastly held to our position of not proselytizing the Second Amendment…my feeling (which proved to be true) was that our students would arrive in the same place through the training. That is, we arranged the cart and the horse in their proper configuration.

We structured the Program on the writings of Malcolm Gladwell, which were revolutionary at the time. The situation we found was that most journalists (and this is unfortunately still the case) unconditionally accept every word from the antigun side as gospel truth handed down on a marble tablet. Our primary concept as articulated by myself and Erhardt was that we weren't trying to "convert" the journalists to our side; rather, we thought of ourselves like a defense attorney in a capital case...we weren't trying to "convert" the jurors to our side of the story; rather we wanted to create a small shadow of doubt that every word coming from our enemies was true. If we could plant that doubt, we had succeeded.

We were also not afraid to reach out to there who shared our views. I brought trainers from the Pink Pistols, the largest gay self-defense group, on board. And yes, I took a lot of crap — a LOT of crap!— for it. But it was the right thing to do. My absolute statement was that people who shoot, hunt, compete with firearms, carry guns for self-defense...they are our friends! Deeds, not words.

The Media Education Program was the most successful media outreach ever attempted by the gun culture. At the beginning of the Program, Sarah Brady had bragged that with one phone call in the morning she could be on all 3 national networks (3 national networks…isn't that quaint???) by that evening; the Program broke Brady's stranglehold on the news without directly attacking the antigun "spinners." We made unprecedented inroads into the antigun media...and it drove our enemies crazy. I even got an email from a prominent antigun activist who had, ironically, come up through magazine journalism much as I had. His email read, "Who ARE you?" My answer, equally cryptic, was, "I am you."

The Program was expanded into Hollywood with the now semi-legendary stunt, property master, armorer and action/second unit director events, addressing the antigun biases in Hollywood once again through training and, honestly, exposure to our marvelous team of instructors. After the first 2 events, major Hollywood directors and even well-known actors began asking about upcoming events and whether they could attend. We expanded the Program again into fiction, working with the Mystery Writers of America to produce an event for their national convention that the group called the best, most successful event ever held by that group. My plan was to keep chipping away at American popular culture, based on concepts created by myself and Paul Erhardt on the "normalization" of firearms in American society.

We succeeded beyond our wildest crazy-ass best-case projections. The industry still benefits from the Program, which ended years ago. We forged alliances within the shooting sports and training community and helped everyone to understand the importance — and the power — of speaking with a single voice and staying on message.

There are many great stories that came out of the Program. I tend to remember our victories...there was one antigun columnist in California who started his column on the Program with something to the effect that one usually thought of gun owners as "ignorant hillbillies," but that "these people are slick, sophisticated and they almost sold me!" LOL! I loved it when the Brady organization called me "crazy" in the New York Times.

In the end, the industry decided that such events were too expensive to continue. Yes, they were expensive. But the payoff was huge. Worse, I think we as an industry simply retreated from dealing with the MSM, and like a stretched rubber band, it popped back to shorter than it was before. The industry to the best of my knowledge maintains no media outreach.

Here's one last little bit of irony. Note the "$350 expense stipend" offered for this event. The bottom of the one-pager put our by Dart Center reads, "This workshop is being made possible by a generous grant from Everytown for Gun Safety."

When we ran the Media Education Program, we initially considered offering journalists a travel stipend to help them get to the event. The journalists I bounced the idea off of were ENRAGED, furious that I would even consider such an "unethical" action. How dare I suggest they take money from the "gun lobby?" And yet how easily they take money from the antigun lobby...

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Hawkeye FTW Predator rifle design began with extensive on-range consultation with SAAM (Sportsman's All-weather, All-terrain Marksmanship) shooting instructors at the world-renowned FTW Shooting School in Barksdale, Texas. The SAAM instructors were impressed with the proven accuracy of the Hawkeye Predator and the quick handling of the Gunsite Scout rifle. With their input, Ruger engineers designed a rifle that combines the trigger and action of the Hawkeye Predator with the adjustable buttstock design found on the Gunsite Scout rifle. The result is a perfect combination of ergonomics and long-range accuracy needed in a fast handling predator rifle.

The new FTW Predator combines elements of the GUNSITE Scout with the proven Hawkeye Predator platform. Given that the 2 bolt action rifles I have the most rounds through in the last 5 years are the GUNSITE Scout in .308 and my Guide Gun in .300 Win Mag, the purchase makes perfect sense. The last time I was at FTW I saw and handled Hawkeyes in 6.5 Creedmoor that were "school guns." In fact, Dianna Liedorff used one of the school guns in an episode of SHOOTING GALLERY from FTW you'll see later this season. The 6.5 Creedmoor is crazy accurate. Here's my friend Bruce Towsley's piece and the Hawkeye Predator from AMERICAN RIFLEMAN a few years back, along with Scott Rupp's hunting take on the cartridge.

The FTW Predator features a 24-inch barrel at 1:8 twist.

I've been thinking about a 6.5 Creedmoor since I watched Dianna on my last trip to FTW. I have to be honest with you guys…250+ rounds of .300 Win Mag out of a 20-inch Guide Gun with a muzzle brake over 3 days just plain beats you up. The last drill at FTW, engaging multiple targets in failing light at distances from 300-800+ — a drill in which I'd excelled on a previous visit with a .308 AR — left me flailing. After the drill Tim Fallon, who runs FTW, suggested I come back with something less of a cannon next time…"you'll learn more," he said, "if you're not pounded to death."

I'll go with a Burris XTR II 5-25X, a scope I'm familiar, and very happy, with.

So I'm really looking forward to this rifle! Meanwhile, I'll keep working with .22s, especially the .22 Ruger American bolt gun.

Now THAT is a "Loaded" M1A! I'm more of an AR-10 guy myself, but I've shot enough M1A to really respect them, especially as incredible target rifles. It looks like SA is taking the platform to the next step.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

...even as the Colorado Legislature prepares to repeal the ridiculous Michael Bloomberg magazine capacity limit, the former Colorado company of Magpul has announced on their FaceBook page the SHOT SHOW stunner, a 60-round drum for the AR-15:

The PMAG D-60. Sixty rounds. Reliable, durable, lightweight, shorter than a 30 rd mag, and full of features that make it extremely easy to use. MSRP $129.95. Please note that transparent back and cut-away versions were for testing purposes only, and the solid drum with round indicator window is the variant that will be offered for sale. Shipping Spring/Summer 2015, but you can get a sneak peak of the drum in action at ATAC range day before SHOT show.

The magazine bill isn't popular with several Democrats, which means it could pass the legislature by as much as 21-14 in the Senate and 34-31 in the House.

Even if our moron of a governor, who has admitted repeatedly that the mag law was a huge huge mistake, decides to take more money from Michael Bloomberg and veto the Repeal, I am lucky enough to have owned at least 4 of these prior to the July 1 2014 activation date of the Bloomberg law!!!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Sunday, January 11, 2015

…neither one of us wanted to go out, so I had to punt on dinner. Luckily, I had tomatoes, anchovies, capers and garlic on hand, so of course "puttanesca" popped up in my head. My Sweetie had baked a loaf of Italian bread, so it made sense. I cooked it up — red pepper flakes are absolutely critical in a puttanesca sauce, IMHO — added some wonderful old vine Zinfandel from Ravenswood (loved visiting that vineyard!!!) that I opened,threw in she shrimp and served it all over rice. Would have been better with kalamata olives, but hey, you go with what you got.

I had an interesting lesson in concealed carry yesterday. It was a grey, yeechy day, but we decided to take the Newt-ster on a new trail. We also had a handful of errands to run in Ft. Collins. Because the trail was icy and muddy, my plan was come home, shower and run the errands. Yeah, I know…stupid. My Sweetie correctly pointed out we were half-way to Ft. Collins, so why didn't we just go ahead and run the errands, mud and all? Snap! So we did, including running to the Whole Foods in Ft. Collins…Rivendell to Boulder's Caras Galadhon as the center of Hippie-dom on Earth.

I bring this up because I was wearing my dog-walk gun, the 2.75-inch Redhawk .44 Magnum in the Ted Blocker trail holster. So I threw my shirttail over the cannon, kept my jacket on and did all the errands, including Whole Foods. Nobody broke into hysteria, pointed and ran screaming for the exits. Nobody noticed at all, even though the big Redhawk probably printed on my jacket. It reminded me that CCW is mostly in your head...in general, most people simply don't notice. You could be carrying an S&W .500 Magnum and a Bichon Frise stuffed in your pants and 99% of the people you interact with won't have a clue…unless the Bichon whines a lot.

Benelli’s goal of dominance in 3-Gun competition just got another boost with the announcement that Dianna Liedorff-Muller will lead the company’s new Team Benelli 3-Gun program in 2015.

With Liedorff-Muller at the helm and a team of renowned shooters on board with Team Benelli, the company brings both equipment and talent to bear in the popular competitive format.

As the premier shotgun of choice for many top 3-Gun competitors, Benelli has been sponsoring individual competitors for years, but 2015 will be the first time Benelli has sponsored a primary team.

“Di is a natural-born leader with immense talent, securing her position at the forefront of 3-gun,” said Tom Kaleta, Vice President of Marketing for Benelli USA. “Her passion for the sport and ability to encourage and coach others makes Di the ideal team captain. We look forward to a year full of victories for the Benelli 3-Gun team with Dianna at the helm.”

Liedorff-Muller, who recently retired after 22-years with the Tulsa Police Department, is a competition and defensive firearms instructor, outspoken 2nd Amendment advocate and noted television personality on shows like Outdoor Channel’s “Shooting Gallery.”

Liedorff-Muller has been competing in 3-Gun for Benelli for the last year and her shooting prowess put her in second place for two consecutive years in the 3-Gun Nation Lady Pro Series. Her “High-Lady” titles include USPSA Multi-Gun Open Ladies Champion and finalist in the 3-Gun nation shoot off since 2012. Her competitive spirit drove her to compete in 26 shooting events spanning 17 states during the 2014 3-Gun season shooting the Benelli M2.

“It’s such an honor to be named as captain of Team Benelli,” said Liedorff-Muller. “Not only do I get to run a shotgun that has virtually set the bar in 3-Gun, but I’m equally excited about the people behind the scenes. The customer service and personal aspect of Benelli is amazing and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Benelli USA is a world leader in manufacturing quality semiautomatic shotguns and rifles that are known for their ultra-reliability and high-performance standards. For the latest news and product information, visit www.benelliusa.com.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Spent some time on the phone yesterday with my old friend Bruce Gray of GrayGuns discussing the future of the Sig Sauer P320, the polymer-framed striker-fired Sig that was such a hit at last tear's SHOT Show.

Bruce has worked with Sig for years, and he's hugely excited about the 320 not just as a service pistol, but as a platform for competition. Of course, as I've said before, Bruce could probably carve a gun out of a bar of soap and have it work just fine. Some of his initial accuracy tests are available here on his blog.

Bruce is stoked on the gun's potential…he's talking about using one for Bianchi this year, and Allen Forkner, who works with Sig at the Swanson Russell agency, will the running a GrayGuns mod'ed Sig in 3-Gun this season, assuming he can find suitably fashionable extended magazine base pads to go with his holster. My understanding is that this year 3-GUN NATION will actually be instituting fashion rules on guns and gear, with time-based penalties for non-matching accessories…joke…joke...JOKE!!!

It's great to hear Bruce all revved up and excited. He's had a series of heart health problems over the last few years that has rendered him sort of the Incredible Disappearing Person. For those of you who don't know him, Bruce is the rarest of all birds in the gun culture. He has been a world-class shooter and a world-class gunsmith for decades. Add to that LEO and world class instructor…he worked with me and Erhardt on the NSSF Media Education programs. I took one of Bruce's classes at the Sig Academy with my old Sig 226, and it's one of the best classes I've ever taken.

This as I continue outfitting my old Glock 34 9mm for my own 3-Gun season. As I've mention before, the G34 now sports a GlockTriggers "Edge" trigger and a Sentinel Design Glock magwell…not a huge comp magwell, but a serviceable design. At the suggestion of knowledgeable Glocksters, I'm leaning toward Taran Tactical sights…I need that green fiber optic front in any case. You can probably guess that I'm still ambivalent about going to a dot sight…not sure why this is. I can't waive my arms and make my eyes any better…all that can be done has been done. I guess I've never been that interested in Open class. Still, my work with a rifle over the last year has convinced me that optics are my future.

Ironically, I've really liked running dots on my Glock 19, and I do like the ALG "6-Second" mount that Jerking The Trigger is showing. Maybe it's time...

Such attacks will continue in the West as long as jihadism survives as an ideology. They will be limited in scope but intended to cause terrorist theater that spills well beyond the limits of the attack to create vicarious victims. Because of this continuing threat, citizens should practice appropriate situational awareness and be prepared to properly respond to danger.

Read the whole thing, of course. It follows a number of think tank analyses (most notably, Rand) on the shifting nature of terrorism. This story from Reuters sums it up pretty well:

In this age of the lightly-resourced, self-starting urban guerrilla, the jihadists have discovered a formula that lends a chilling new dimension to their trade. Not only can anyone be a victim, but with such a low bar to entry, anyone might be a perpetrator too. The brothers who shot dead 12 people at the satirical weekly newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, planned their killing spree in plain sight.

Add to this the high drama that Mumbai- and Paris-style attacks generate — televised scenes of manhunts, special forces and sieges — and they begin to look like an even more attractive force-multiplier.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we as Americans are having a very hard time understanding this new model...why would anyone not want a 55-inch curved screen television, unlimited Internet access and a 57 different brands of toothpaste?

What we don't see is that Islamic jihad provides a certain group of people with a life meaning that is largely absent from most of current Western civilization. Part of that "life meaning" is the Koranic imperative to slay the infidel ("I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them..." Quran 8:12, among many)...that would be us, BTW, As Anjem Choudary wrote in USA Today, “Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression, as their speech and actions are determined by divine revelation and not based on people’s desires...in an increasingly unstable and insecure world the potential consequences of insulting the Messenger Muhammad are known to Muslims and non-Muslims alike."

You betcha there, bubba! So let's run the learning points:

1)YOU ARE GOING TO BE ON YOUR OWN

As we have seen with active shooter situations, the police are minutes — sometimes many minutes — away for an "event" that is measured in seconds.

2) THE SHOOTER(S) HAVE ALREADY MADE THE DECISION TO KILL

Unlike more common street crimes, there isn't a "build-up" or "lag time" between the initial contact and the situation escalating to lethal violence. Killing is the point of the exercise, and it will begin immediately. This also means that "pre-event indicators" that serve us well in normal times are pretty much worthless here. The big pre-event indicator, as Gabe Suarez notes in the article linked above, is people in balaclavas with battle rifles.

3) THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE SHOOTER

And they may not all arrive in one car, or at the same time. They may have accomplices scattered throughout the city, or waiting for them at a different locations or meeting the initial aggressors at a certain time, etc. The point is, you can't know!

Nationality, age, sex, size...whatever...no assumptions whatsoever even make sense. We've already had a situation where a concealed carry holder was killer because he failed to register, or ignored, the woman behind him. Hey, Hayat Boumeddiene is cute as a button; so is a pigmy rattlesnake.

Maybe better trained than you. Which means they will respond quickly and ruthlessly. Note the Stratfor analysis that the Paris shooters seemed to be trained in small in small unit action. Note the seamless execution of the LEO on the ground begging for his life. CCW holders often have a sense that in any situation, they'll be better trained than their aggressors...such an assumption in a terrorists attack is suicide.

6) THE SHOOTER(S) WILL PROBABLY BE BETTER ARMED AND ARMORED THAN YOU

You have your EDC, which may be a pocket pistol or an easy-to-carry smaller handgun. They may have for real, e.g. full auto, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades, explosives and full plate body armor. Do you sense that this puts you at at disadvantage?

7) THE SHOOTERS ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES...OR GIVE UP

As we've researched mass shootings/active shooter incidences for THE BEST DEFENSE, we've note that those incidences end with the shooter taking his/her life or just giving up. That is NOT the mindset here! In fact, it's the opposite...the shooters are going to engage, and put as many bodies on the ground as possible.

8) THE LIKELIHOOD OF YOU BEING CAUGHT UP IN A TERRORIST ATTACK IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS YOU BEING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

And yet, people die from lightning strikes every year.

So what are the implications of these learning points for your everyday life?

Let's be clear here — this morning, the Islamic terrorists won and won big. Three men — three! — with rifles and an RPG brought a major First World city to it's knees. They also unconditionally succeeded in sending a terrifying and brutal message to Western societies who cling to the quaint notion of free expression…we can get to you no matter where you live, even in the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world.

The conclusion doesn't change if the French run the shooters to ground, kill them, put them on trial, whatever. They won. And they expect to die. It doesn't matter if they're "lone wolves," imported ISIS soldiers, radicalized French-born Muslims, or Major Nidal Malik Hasan on furlough. They won.

And all around the world terrorist strategists are rubbing their beards and thinking, "Hmmmmmmmm."

It is all a simple question of ROI, return on investment. For those of us who own our own businesses, for people who run any kind of enterprise, ROI is a simple formula that quite literally defines the possible. "If I spend 'X' on expanding my business, what will be the value of 'Y,' the return on the investment?" If my business is the destruction of Western culture, I've got to be aware that war isn't cheap. Secondly, wholesale slaughter is only useful if it advances my goals; for example, it works great in the Middle East, which is founded on a sort of wholesale slaughter economy. Not so great in Western democracies, where such killing tends to rally the low information voters.

But "discount slaughter," that's something else. Whether it's hacking a British soldier's head off on a busy street in London, killing a Dutch filmmaker, crashing a car into a crowd of pedestrians in Jerusalem, shattering Mumbai, or today's Paris atrocities, these type of attacks work well. In other words, the return on investment is very high...nobody has to travel to America and learn how to fly a jetliner, explosives don't have to be smuggled in, you don't have to stretch out a worldwide logistics net...all you need a good social media account, a glossy magazine and a sense that history is on your side...from Virginia Postrel, author of The Power of Glamour, on "The Glamour of Islamic State:"

Islamic State’s recruitment imagery and Internet fan posts offer a different, more contemporary and overtly violent form of glamour.Videos, magazine features and Twitter memes mirror the glamour of action movies, shooter video games and gangsta rap. They make killing look effortless, righteous and triumphant. They promise to make the jihadist feel manly and important.

Indeed, the “intangible power” of Islamic State stems from its ability to meld common, often secular forms of martial and media glamour with a compellingly utopian version of religious faith. Conventional hometown imams often have little to offer alienated young British men longing for excitement and purpose, argued Shiraz Maher, a researcher at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, compared with “the hyper-empowering appeal of IS videos, filled with balaclava-wearing boys in smocks offering the promise of making history.”

That's ROI!

The journalists and cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo died because they satirized radical Islam. But freedom of expression, while largely absent in Islam, radical or otherwise, is one of the bedrocks of Western culture. It would be fair to say that without freedom of expression, our countries would cease to exist. The great American fantasist and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman put it best in this tweet today:

I unfortunately believe that the Paris attacks offer a window into America's future. The leader of our country has already stood before the United Nations and, with the quote beginning this post, given tacit approval to the destruction of freedom of speech (and White House shill Jay Carney told reporters in 2012, "We are aware that a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Muhammad, and obviously we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this...").

Wolves don't respect weakness.

In 2002 my old friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette did this cartoon, for which he was sentenced to death by radical Islamists:

Hell, maybe cartoonists are the bravest of us all. Here's a link to the Mohammed cartoons.

In his post-Apoc masterpiece The Stand, Steven King wrote, “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.”

Sunday, January 04, 2015

I’ve reviewed these reports of “trauma”, and have reached a conclusion about them. I’m going to make a brief statement summarizing my conclusion. While I mean this in the nicest way possible, I don’t want victims of Microaggressions or supporters of Trigger Warnings to doubt my sincerity.

F&%$ your trauma.

Yes, f$%# your trauma. My sympathy for your suffering, whether that suffering was real or imaginary, ended when you demanded I change my life to avoid bringing up your bad memories. You don’t seem to have figured this out, but there is no “I must never be reminded of a negative experience” expectation in any culture anywhere on earth.

Please read the whole thing…it is heart-felt and dead-on. I think 2015 should be the year we call bullshit on this flood of victimhood spewed by the progressive/socialist/fascist clowns presently in control in D.C., the universities, and rat holes like Chicago. One of my key take-aways from this great post is the reinforcement of the idea of what we "owe," or "don't owe," other people we interact with.

I'm Old Skol Southern born and raised, and I had politeness quite literally beaten into me as a kid. But I'm polite because it's important to me, not you. I don't owe you that politeness…hell, I don't owe you anything. Whether it's because we believe in the Biblical injunction of "Do unto others…" or just classic honey-tongued Southern Scots-Irish "honor" (I used to explain to puzzled New Yorkers that just because people in Memphis or Atlanta smiled, were relentlessly polite and asked you in for ice tea didn't mean that said people either liked you or wouldn't rearrange your face for the wrong transgression), we once believed, and operated, in a civil society.

We no longer share that common ground, and in fact, our blood enemies are using that civility as a weapon against us. Why should be be forced to acknowledge the false "victimhood" of what may be the most privileged group of people in the history of the planet? Do we all need to mumble tearful apologies for wearing the wrong shirt?

Saturday, January 03, 2015

As we moving toward SHOT, more companies are springing leaks on new products. The latest is Glock via the Kiesler Police Supply FaceBook page. Keisler is a huge Glock dealer and they've posted new Glocks for 2015. Essentially, the practical-tactical G34 9mm, G35 .40 and G41 .45 will come from the factory already cut for a red dot sights. This isn't a surprise, since Glock has been circling the red dot issue for a couple of years while at the same time watching a whole bunch of gunsmiths make a bundle providing Perfection With Dots...I have 2 G19s myself, with a red dot G34 in planning…although with a factory option in route, I may wait a couple of months.

The bigger boom is a bigger boomer, a long slide 10mm "Hunter" G40 cut for a red dot. Somewhere, Ted Nugent is grinning like a Motor City Madman…

I would still be utterly and totally surprised if Glock didn't roll out a 9mm version of the .380 G42, which is, in fact a really nice little .380.

In fact one of the fascinations of the Tavor--or any battle rifle, really, but especially so of the Tavor--is how it reflects its creators presumptions about the nature of the fights their troops will face in those upcoming engagements. It demonstrates a boldness of design and a practicality of usage, much like the famous Uzi submachine gun, so sublimely perfect it remains a tool for protective and special operations units the world over, even though it's close to 50 years old. It was, after all, Uzis that went to Entebbe and Uzis that came out of briefcases when someone tried to shoot President Reagan. That same brilliance coupled with practicality is exactly what characterizes the Tavor and will keep it on the front lines for years to come.

So what can we infer from the design of the Tavor? It is somewhat odd looking, particularly with the heaviness through grip and depth of stock (which looks like an oar), that seemingly stubby barrel projecting just a few inches beyond what looks to be a trigger guard on steroids, all of it (except the barrel) sheathed in black plastic. Is it a rifle or something from "Star Wars X: The Prop Department Has Gone Nuts."

But the more you shoot it, the better it looks. The more you learn, the smarter it seems. The first thing to be learned is that Israeli defense intellectuals foresee wars in urban environments, in rubble, shattered neighborhoods, tunnels, stairways, alleys and passages. The long-range engagements that saw American forces pulling M-14s out of Cosmoline for use in Afghanistan aren't on the IDF radarscope.

Read the whole thing. As usual, Steve nails it! That's why he's been a regular on GUN STORIES WITH JOE MANTEGNA…that and the fact he's a totally cool guy. Although he did threaten to kill me if I pushed the GS interviews longer than 3 hours!!!

I'm just about ready to draft my Tavor into house gun service. I'd like to put another hundred or so rounds through it. I will definitely be taking a carbine class with it later this year.

Friday, January 02, 2015

This from Sharyl Attkisson, one of two last legitimate journalists in America (Katie Pavlich would be the other), just after Christmas:

Sharyl Attkisson: Docs indicate ATF was using Fast and Furious to justify new gun regs

Just as Second Amendment civil rights activists feared, federal government bureaucrats were supplying illegal firearms to Mexican drug cartels in the expectation that it would led to pressure for more regulation.

Gosh, what a surprise! When I was ranting that Eric Holder and Hilary Clinton were willing to stack Mexican bodies up like cordwood to accomplish their gun control goals, more than one "gun person" told me that I had finally crossed the line into full blown paranoia. My response was no other possible rationale fit. To borrow from Sherlock Holmes, "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

I think the blogger Ivy Mike's Cafe captures the spirit of the Fast and Furious debacle and cover-up best: